HPK'S BLOG

VO4TA: Layout

Direction: Warm, inviting, mellow tone. Inspirational but not over the top.

VO: “All across the country, from sea…

to shining sea, we’re switching…

on a new year.”

VO: “There are lights, there are fireworks…

and the future

...looks bright.”

It’s not uncommon for a Voice Over script to be formatted as poorly as the example above. It looks like very short phrases, laid out almost at random. Why? It’s text copied directly from a storyboard. The shots are laid out in separate panels (like a cartoon) and as the shot changes an ellipsis divides the sentence into pieces. This indicates that the Voice Over continues to the next frame, not necessarily that there should be a pause in the read.

It’s something you need to take into account.

Remember, when you audition, you are sending audio to indicate your interpretation of the script and the spec. Not the line format. Layout is not your friend.